Stay Like This
by singingstarryknights
Summary: Everyone needs a distraction after a long night of fighting crime. GregSara. One Shot.


Stay Like This

Everyone needs a distraction after a long night of fighting crime.

………

Sara was woken by Greg's leg burrowing between her knees. She opened her eyes, remembering the weight of his arm thrown across her waist, his head on her shoulder. She pressed a gentle kiss to his wavy hair, smiling to herself as he shifted in his sleep, tightening his grip on her stomach, and sliding his thigh to the top of her own. His knee made contact with her intimately, and she inhaled sharply at the touch. He slept on, however, innocently unaware that he had caused a warm pressure below her belly.

She shifted only just, pushing his scraggly hair out of his eyes, allowing her to see his face. Restful sleep took at least a decade off his appearance, and she found herself fighting off a twinge of panic, relaxing when she remembered that he was a legal and reasonable thirty-one. She reached up and ran her fingers through his disheveled hair, and pressed a loving kiss to his forehead. She shifted to face him, draping a thigh over the one he had wedged between hers. He instinctively pulled her against him, curling his fingers around the small of her back, snuggling into her embrace amidst the pillows and blankets.

His slight build hid his muscles well, even though he didn't look strong enough to hold her in place, she knew she wouldn't be able to remove herself from his grip without a considerable amount of effort; not that she would ever fight away from his grasp anyway. She had been addicted to the feel of his arms and his brand of affection since the first moment he touched her, just a brush of a hand against her cheek to catch a tear as it rolled down the side of her face.

He had first touched her almost a year ago, when Nick was running out of air, Warrick was flying off the handle, Grissom was arguing with Catherine. She had backed into the empty locker room to take a minute and slow her pulse back to normal. Her feet had led her to Nick's locker, and she had sat in front of it, and had cried. Greg had silently come in and sat beside her, facing the opposite wall. He reached over, ridding her delicate features of her single tear. He had pulled her toward his body, let her dry her eyes on his shoulder, holding her steady with the same embrace that he held her with even in sleep, like tonight, cradled by the bedding.

She loved him, she really, really did. She loved this man sleeping on and beside her deeply, wholly, unconditionally. She had learned that from him. She had shown him how to reveal filed down serial numbers on semi automatics, how to take the fingerprints of a dead body, how to be civil to Hodges so he would process their case evidence efficiently. He, in turn, had shown her how to cut out a window in the walls she had carefully constructed around her heart, how to let go of her conservations and her worries. He had shown her that people were not restricted to horrible deeds and lies and trickery. He had saved her, taught her how to love, and had caught her in his trusting hold when she had stumbled into love with him, tripping over her own feet the whole way.

Greg shifted again, and Sara forgot her rambling thoughts as she silently observed his sleeping movements. He rolled on top of her fully, sliding down her body to pillow his head on her stomach, just below the swell of her chest. She winced as she freed a leg from under his body, bending it at the knee and resting it against his side. She arched into him gently, and he snaked his arms around the small of her back, pressing the side of his face against her abdomen. She wove the fingers of one hand into his unruly waves of hair, dancing the fingers of her other hand across the sloping plain of his shoulder and bicep.

His body would never be the topic of gossip around the newer lab techs, like Nick's; his smile, either, like Warrick's. She had thought on it, and decided that she preferred selfishly keeping him to herself, rather than sharing him with the eyes of the lab. No one would have believed her, if she went about dropping casual hints how amazing every aspect of her life had become since letting Greg into her life, into her bed, that she was sleeping with Greg Sanders, scrawny, childish field mouse extraordinaire.

But they were more serious than just sleeping together, that was just one aspect of their relationship. He made her laugh, made her smile, made her feel safe, kept her warm. Greg Sanders made her a whole person. Sara could no longer conceive of a life without him beside her each and every time she closed her eyes, and opened them again. She was distracted from her musings when he placed a gentle kiss to the soft skin just above her navel. She turned her attention to him, and grinned lazily when she saw that he had fallen back to sleep, cuddled against her.

His unruly waves of chestnut brown hair, in dire need of a haircut, tickled her bare stomach lightly, contrasting with the rough scratching of his three day old stubble against the lower half of her abdomen. They had both been working so hard on the Jennings case, only now just getting some actual sleep. Well, Greg was, anyway.

It amazed her how he spiraled through his life like a tornado with too much kinetic energy; being passionate about everything, from processing evidence and interrogating suspects to picking the pickles out of his sandwiches from the deli and educating her on the fine art of mindless debauchery via Saturday morning cartoons, cold pizza, and an occasional display of his academic knowledge, him and his minor in Anatomy and Physiology.

She sighed quietly, running her hands through his hair again. She felt the even rhythm of his lungs filling and emptying of air against her hips, and she relaxed, finding the soft, even exhale of his breath against her skin soothing. The early light of the first hour of dawn started bleeding in through the curtains, smattering the comforter with patches of bright, cheery sunlight. She squinted at the orangy-white light, attempting to protest the daylight with a disgusted expression.

"You can't intimidate the earth out of its rotation, Sara." She broke into a grin, turning her attention away from the curtains to Greg, who had woken up, propping his head up on his hand by her hip, childishly rubbing his eyes. She groaned, shying away from the bright light in her eyes. She felt Greg laugh, his chest vibrating against her thighs, causing a heavy pressure. He climbed up her body, lying back down on top of her, leaning down to press a delicate kiss below her earlobe, causing her to arch into him only just. "I'm serious. The universe doesn't care that you work nights."

"It should." She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, chuckling softly as his rough stubble tickled her neck. "Greg." He made a noncommittal grunt, acknowledging her, but continued to leave a wandering stream of kisses and scratches to her collarbone before she twisted away from him.

"What?" Not angry, but amused, He lay in the space of mattress she had vacated, stealing her pillow, propping his head up on is, laying on his stomach, facing her. "You ok?"

"Yeah." Sara lay on her back, squinting in the sunlight, staring at the ceiling. "What are we doing, Greg?" She turned her head to face him, her gaze finding his. He cocked an eyebrow at her, caught off guard by her inquiry.

"Sleeping after a grueling double shift."

"Hmm." She pursed her lips, looking away from him for a second, as if choosing her words carefully, before turning back to him, rolling over on her side to face him. "What are we really doing?" Greg buried his face in her pillow, inhaling deeply before raising his head, propping himself up on his elbows. He looked her over thoughtfully, her disheveled curls all lit up from the morning sun, her faded Harvard tee shirt riding up only just, letting the smooth skin of her stomach show before it disappeared under the comforter, her trace of a soft smile. He leaned over and pressed his lips against hers gently, gaining access but not taking it as he parted her lips with his tongue, gently. He pulled away, tossing her a tired smile.

"Falling in love, one day at a time." Greg laid back down on his back, and Sara snuggled up to his side, laying an arm across his stomach, and her had in the crook of his shoulder. Greg wrapped his arms around her slight frame, dropping a kiss to her curly hair as she relaxed against him. After a few minutes, her breathing became a steady, even lullaby, comforting him, soothing him into sleep himself.

"Can we stay like this for a while?" He was just about to drift to sleep, when she spoke, barely above a whisper, into his tee shirt. He ran a hand over her shoulders, and hugged her tightly.

"We can stay like this forever."

………

A/N: a rewrite of a piece I had posted on another site… brought the rating way, way down to post here. Not a part of either series, just a one shot. Thanks for all the reviews on all my other stuff :grins appreciatively:


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